Cash withdrawals by Visa and MasterCard holders will be possible
through ATMs belonging to the region’s largest bank the Russian
National Commercial Bank (RNCB), TASS reported on Wednesday.
Russian domestic transactions using Visa and MasterCard were
transferred to processing through Russia’s newly created National
Payment Card System (NPCS) on April 1. The system has been
started to ensure the continued operation of Visa and MasterCard
after the two companies refused to work with a number of Russian
banks due to Western sanctions last year.

Visa and MasterCard suspended services to Crimean banks in
December after US President Barack Obama authorized individual and sectoral sanctions against
the peninsula. Later, PayPal, Google and Apple also cut off their products and services from
Crimea. Russia’s Bank Rossiya, SMP Bank, InvestCapitalBank and
Sobinbank also fell under Western sanctions

In May Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by signing a
law to establish a NPCS. Visa and MasterCard later signed an agreement to carry
out card transactions via the NPCS processing centre and settling
through the Bank of Russia.

The Central Bank of Russia has already launched a new SWIFT-style payment service
aiming to move away from Western financial dominance.